


Watching

by GoodbyeBlueMonday



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Drabble, F/F, People Watching, Shipper on Deck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-26
Updated: 2013-11-26
Packaged: 2018-01-02 17:32:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1059612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoodbyeBlueMonday/pseuds/GoodbyeBlueMonday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Juri is very observant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Watching

Maybe other people didn't see it, and certainly they themselves didn't see it.

But Juri saw it. Juri saw everything.

She'd become used to observing other people, and their relationships, all their possible entanglements, in the years that Shiori had been gone. When Juri had accepted that romantic happiness was not going to be for her, because she just couldn't imagine anyone else it could be with other than the girl who'd broken her heart, stomped on it, left it out to die. Juri didn't want to, anyway. She'd learned: love is for fools. Miracles don't exist. It was why she dueled, wasn't it? To show other people the truth, too.

But she could watch those other people. She could watch them make fools of themselves, continually refuse to learn their lessons. Watch Touga break every heart in Ohtori and throw the pieces back in their faces as he moved on to the next girl. Watch Tsuwabuki pine endlessly after the older girl who'd never see him as more than a kid brother at best, lackey at worst. Watch the unsettling... chemistry between brothers and sisters who shouldn't have it, and thank her lucky stars she'd been born an only child as she attempted to avert her eyes.

Watch the two girls who never seemed to smile or relax quite like they did when around each other, and wonder, who do they think they're fooling?

It was clear as day that there was something between Utena and Anthy. Utena loved to protect everyone, Prince as she wanted to be, but no one did she leap to the defense of quite like the Rose Bride. Juri had never seen her so dejected as the day when she was wearing the normal uniform, presumably given up on dueling, after Touga her defeated her and won Anthy for himself... and everyone could see it wasn't just about her bruised pride. The look in her eyes when Anthy passed her was that of a wound that cut much deeper.

And Anthy? The Rose Bride had never acknowledged her previous fiancé(e)s once she'd been won by another - never before, at least as far as Juri remembered. She'd never given Saionji so much as a sideways glance once Utena had defeated him. Yet, when she had been Touga's, Anthy still clearly wasn't ready to leave Utena, much as her masks had tried to communicate otherwise. There were cracks, large cracks, that were clear as day every time Utena walked past, and Juri could feel Anthy  _reaching_... reaching as she said hello, tried to make it all common courtesy to a classmate when those cracks made it clear it was so much more.

Utena winning her back had been a sigh of relief, but then it wasn't long after when Juri had been drawn anew into her own drama, for once, with the return of Shiori and then, Ruka. Yet she'd never stopped watching. It was difficult  _not_ to, it was  _that_ obvious between the two girls, and it was  _frustrating_ that they couldn't work it out, that neither of them seemed able to admit it.

If they could soften Juri's hard, jaded heart, that said something, didn't it?

And so one day, when Utena was about to finally face down the last of the duelists for the last time, and end the whole mess for everyone, Juri finally decided to take things into her own hands. To remind Utena of why she was fighting, if the girl just couldn't work it out. To remind her that chasing after Akio was a waste of time, that everyone could see it. To say just a few simple words:

"You love her, don't you?"


End file.
